Why I Will Always Stand For the Flag
What a difference 70 years can make!
“Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?” Country Singer Alan Jackson wrote the song “Where Were You” to capture his feelings after the bombing of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001. This date, like so many other memorable and historic moments, is indelibly etched in people’s minds.
Much like the bombing of Pearl Harbor (December 7th, 1941), the assassinations of John F. Kennedy (November 22, 1963) and Martin Luther King (April 4, 1968), these dates marked turning points in our nation’s history. Our history is full of unifying events that caused us to rally support for our country when our global peaceful coexistence with others was challenged. But, then there were incidents of internal domestic strife and disharmony that have threatened our country even more.
It was another day in September that I feel reversed the progress made in race relations and slowed the healing of the wounds of slavery. On September 1, 2016 the Quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers felt he had a voice that would be listened to. Colin Kaepernick decided he would “take a knee” during the playing of the National Anthem as a peaceful protest against racism and police brutality. This action took place on the last pre-season game of the year and what many don’t know is that he had been quietly sitting on the bench during the anthem in previous games. No one was paying attention, so he decided to “take a knee” alongside his “Standing” teammates. He got the attention he wanted but he effectively killed his NFL career.
On May 25, 2020 George Floyd died in Minneapolis, MN. The controversy surrounding his death and the actions which led to it, will be discussed and argued about for years to come. No doubt, there will be lawsuits filed and the criminal justice system will be put to the test.
Let ‘s give the criminal justice system a chance to sort this out. There will be no clear winner here regardless of the outcome of legal proceedings. I hope we recognize that we are “broken” and are in need of urgent repair. Let this be the start of those repairs.
So, here we are, nearly 3 months after George Floyd’s death and the national and international chaos ignited by this one incident is still in full fury. Major cities like Minneapolis, Portland, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, and even smaller cities, Raleigh and Salt Lake City have had protests that turned violent. Many would argue that it’s not just this one incident but several combined. This was just the catalyst that pushed action to the next level. What may have started out as peaceful protests have developed into armed mobs, thugs hiding behind their COVID-19 masks and beneath their black umbrellas to further shield their identities. After 70 days of seige in Portland when do leaders say, “ok, you’ve made your point. Now let’s discuss as civilized humans to see what changes we can come up with.”
Race relations have been a work in progress since January 1, 1863 when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which declared “that all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are, and henceforward shall be free.” You would think that in the year 2020 we’d be further along than we are. I can’t speak for those who came before me, but since I was born in 1951 and raised in a deep south town of Woodruff, South Carolina, I have seen enormous progress in race relations in our state and the country. Obviously, we’re not there yet. More needs to be done.When I take a close look at the makeup of these violent mobs, I see young people, black and white, probably in their mid-thirties and younger. People born in the 80s and 90s have a different mindset than I do. This is not to say that those born during the Millennial period are a throw-away generation, it’s only to say that their values and principles of decency and social appropriateness vary tremendously from that of the “baby boomer” generation.
According to studies completed by the Pew Research Center on social and demographic trends, “ Millennials have brought more racial and ethnic diversity to American society than previous generations. And Millennials are now the second-largest generation in the U.S. electorate (after Baby Boomers), a fact that continues to shape the country’s politics given their Democratic leanings when compared with older generations. Driving this generational gap is a “diversity explosion” in the United States, which began in 2011 when, for the first time in the history of the country, more minority babies than white babies were born in a year. Soon, most children in the U.S. will be racial minorities: Hispanics, blacks, Asians, and other nonwhite races. And, in about three decades, whites will constitute a minority of all Americans. This milestone signals the beginning of a transformation from the mostly white baby-boom culture that dominated the nation during the last half of the 20th century to the more globalized, multiracial country that the United States is becoming.”
Frank Capra — We Need You
There have been more technological advances in the past seventy years than any period of time before the 1950’s. Science and medicine discoveries have also experienced tremendous growth. However, the generational and cultural divide that has developed during this time could be the biggest change of all. I often ask myself, “what happened to the country I remember as a small, albeit naive, baby boomer child?”
A lot of my early childhood days from the 1950s and 1960s, were spent in front of a 14 inch black & white television set. We had a big antenna on the outside of our house and on a good day we could get 3 different channels. When I wasn’t in school, I was parked in front of the TV. I was a TV-holic and could recite the daily television schedule. I watched it all from the morning test pattern sign-on to the nightly Indian Chief pattern sign- off with the national anthem. I didn’t really get to stay up late but my bed was in the living room and I just pretended to be asleep while my parents watched TV.
Old movie classics like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It’s a Wonderful Life, and the documentary Why We Fight created my mold, rich with values that included hard work, community involvement, and an appreciation for a country rich in liberties and opportunities for all people. Famed Director Frank Capra was an immigrant from Sicily. He took moviemaking to the next level, extracting emotion from the audience. He gave us movies to “think about” long after we’d watched them. He made an impression on me. We need you Frank Capra. If he were here now he’d probably create a movie that drew from these current day conflicts and shape them into a solution for a better tomorrow. The Mr. Potters, the separators of the world, would be gone and the George Bailey’s would unify us. Our spirit would be reenergized.
The Shaping of a Generation
Besides what I was taught by my parents and grand-parents, my most memorable lessons about ethics, values and morality came to me from TV. Shows like The Andy Griffith Show, Leave It to Beaver, Father Knows Best and the movie classics and war movies that fascinated me as a pre-teen, created my personal mantra — a positive belief that most people are good and we are all here to make a difference in the world around us.
All of these shows had a morality vein, a story that could relate to real life situations for a child. I was like a sponge and soaked up these life lessons. I can remember stories centered on honesty, trustworthiness, ethics, friendship, brotherhood, decision making and even bullying. From the war movies I learned about patriotism and love of country. Andy Griffith was a single parent raising a child without a Mom and the Cleaver family was the idealistic, but not necessarily realistic, All American Family. These shows were sugar coated and full of fluff and I loved them. These shows were also very WHITE! It was rare to see a Black child or a Black adult for that matter in any of these prime time shows or old movie classics.
The first time I remember seeing a Black character in a prime time show was when Sammy Davis Jr. played a Gunfighter on The Rifleman. Although I do remember watching regularly, the Our Gang Film Series (renamed The Little Rascals for syndicated TV). I’ve read that the characters of Sunshine Sammy, Farina, Stymie, and Buckwheat were treated like rock stars by the Black community. As a child I didn’t see “black and white”, I just saw children playing and having fun. I loved them too. Again, naive on my part I suppose but I’m looking through the lens of a white child with no Black friends or social interaction with anyone of a different race until I was in high school.
When my high school integrated in 1965 our new Black students were greeted without incident by the white students and faculty. It was seemingly no big deal. When I joined the Marine Corps in 1971, I was exposed to people of different socio-economic and racial backgrounds and for the first time I saw a wide cultural divide between Blacks and Whites. But as an organization, I also saw the Marine Corps recognize the problem then created Human Relations programs that brought people together to discuss those differences. We came to understand each other, to see others through a different lens, one that would allow everyone to see past skin color. Our values and regard for interests beyond self were examined and we found that we were more alike than different. We felt a kinship of loyalty and trust with each other. As it was meant to be, the Corps regained its balance and the feelings of brotherhood and cameraderie prevailed.
Where Do We Go From Here?
It’s clear to me now that each person’s perspective of the world can be different, created by our own life experiences and major influencers. The media in all forms during all generations, whether the TV, Newspapers, and radio of the “baby boomer generation” to the social media overload of today created by Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others, provides us a version of the truth. We, the gullible public, must weigh all of the FACTS then serve as filters for the “real” truth. The truth may not always be obvious. Our criminal justice system is largely dysfunctional because the “truth” is elusive. Facts are often suppressed and not revealed to jurors because a single piece of evidence may be prejudicial to the case. Even what you think you see with your own eyes may not be the truth.
Persuaders will try to convince you of a different truth to serve a personal or political agenda. We all have opinions about matters of consequence. It’s up to each of us to do our due diligence to determine what that “real” truth is. Disinformation, Misinformation, Propaganda, and Fake News are often used interchangeably and are said to be some form of truth. Quite simply, if it’s not the truth then it’s a LIE.
In this information age, who can you believe, who can you trust? Your own ideology and personal core values may shape your convictions and beliefs to give the most credence to those who espouse similar beliefs and values akin to yours. Our major media networks, CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS say they are providing us unbiased, unfiltered facts and fair reporting of instant news. Combine that with the unfiltered, anything goes wild frontier of the internet, then we have a whole lot of filtering to do.
Why Do I Stand for the National Anthem?
So the question still remains, Why Do I Stand? It’s because I was instilled with a set of values that include an empathy for my fellow human being, doing the right thing even when no else is looking, and treating all people with dignity and respect. The King James Bible version of the Golden Rule still applies regardless of religion, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
Finally, I have an unyielding belief in my country and for the principles on which it was founded. Patriotism is not just the waving of the American flag, it’s coming together for a common good, contributing toward improving our country by expressing a voice at the voting machine, it’s the protecting of our country from a divisiveness that could destroy us from within. Our worst enemy could be those among us who forgot or never knew of the hardships and sacrifices of those who made the ultimate sacrifice of laying down their life for our America.
Let’s work together to find some common ground and not yield to those outside agitators who would like for nothing more than for the United States to self-destruct. Let’s “Stand Together “ to heal this wound of separation and division. Let freedom ring for us all and save the fight for those who would seek to destroy us. Let’s ALL Stand for the UNITED STATES of America.
